Growing up a coach’s son isn’t always a walk in the ballpark. For Kyle Kennett, the walk came with both encouragement and constructive criticism.

The experience peaked a week ago, when the Rider University senior was named Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week.

For those who know the name Neil Kennett, the assumption would have been that his son’s athletic ability would have been honed on a playground. Basketball was Neil’s game, one he played at The College of New Jersey and went on to coach, including seven years as head coach at Wagner College.

Now a retired high school teacher, Neil was named head coach at Wagner when P.J. Carlesimo was hired at Seton Hall in 1982. He also coached basketball on the junior college and high school level.

Neither his son nor his daughter, however, settled on his sport. His daughter turned out to be a very good softball player at St. Rose High School in Belmar.

“Like my dad, I couldn’t really run, or jump, or defend, but I could light it up,” Kyle said about basketball. “He did coach me in Little League, but not so much because he wanted to, but because nobody else really stepped up.”

The 21-year-old received his Pitcher of the Week acknowledgement following a seven-inning six-hitter in a 3-1 win over Marist with the run being unearned. He struck out four and allowed no walks.

In seven starts this season, Kyle has a 2.82 ERA, 22 strikeouts and 8 walks, but only a 1-3 record.

After being handed the ball at the end of a couple of four-game weekend sets last month, he now starts the opening game on weekends against conference opponents.

Because of that, he will definitely not appear Wednesday when Wagner comes to town.

Being Pitcher of the Week came as a pleasant surprise, an award the player became aware of on the school’s Twitter account.

“Yeah, social media let the cat out of the bag,” Kyle said. “My initial reaction was, ‘It’s about time. I actually did something good.’”

His college career became frustrating even though he got off fast with a 4-0 mark as a freshman.

“In high school, I had a lot of success,” said Kyle, who pitched St. Rose to back-to-back Non-Public B state championships. “But I felt I never lived up to my expectations here, set up by myself. I’ve always known I could pitch like this, but for whatever reasons, it wasn’t happening. It was never a lack of hard work. Maybe it was more of a mental thing.

“The last couple of years, I was kind of stressed. This year, I went out and just let it happen. Pitching is my favorite thing in the world to do. It’s not about the spotlight. It’s like being able to help the team as much as possible, I guess.”

A lesson taught by his father no doubt.

“He was always able to keep things in perspective,” Kyle said about his father’s impact.

“A lot of parents, when you’re younger, they will sugar-coat stuff and make you think you’re better than you really are.

“I’m not saying he was negative on me. He congratulated me when I did well, and told me when I did badly. He was realistic. He helped me with corrections to avoid poor performances. So him being a coach was definitely beneficial.”

Told of his son’s comments, the former coach laughed and said, “That’s the difference between me and my wife. She would tell him he did fine. Me, as a coach, the other comments come with the territory.”

Coaching for so many years also comes with stories.

The college senior loves to hear about the time Terrance Bailey of Wagner dunked over 7-foot-4 Rik Smits of Marist. “My dad always says that the bottom of Bailey’s Converse was on Smits’ face when he was throwing it down,” Kyle said, breaking into a laugh.

Bailey led the country in scoring when he was a junior in 1986.

“(Neil) did a lot of public speaking, too, like when a former player would be honored at a dinner,” Kyle said. “One of my favorites is, when Dean Borges (fourth in the country in scoring) blew his knee out, my dad said that a career ended that day. ‘It wasn’t his, it was mine!’ I always get a kick out of that one.”